The ideal success would be bulldogs, souths, parra and Newcastle all battling for top 4 from a nsw crowd perspective. Success is wasted on manly, roosters and Penrith.
I really thought when news it's were ousted from running the game and we got back to RL running the game we would see a major feel good factor bring fans out to support the game, simply hasn't happened, in fact crowds and TV audiences were down in the first season of arlc ownership and crowds not really getting any better.
Personally, i imagine its the anti-authoritarian side of people coming out...
Back what NewsLtd was in control and NRL was on the shitter all we'd hear was that the game was about to die and Union/AFL/Soccer was about to takeover Sydney. It was always down to these small groups of passionate fans to save the day. (Plus, now that the game is rich, everyone would assume they deserve their piece, not realising that even $200mil isnt much when you need to spread it over so many areas)
Now, the ARLC is professionally run and i think people feel like theyre losing their control over their little piece of the game; (Junior League admin used to bitch that they couldnt get funding, now they bitch that the funding comes with strings attached).
The current situation is going to need one of two thing to happen before fans really get on board the ARLC:
- A massive culture shift so fans accept that the bureaucracy is necesary and actually a good thing
- The ARLC media unit need to find an "enemy" for the fans; an Us-vs-Them, Cold War is the best way to stir parochialism for the "Us" side of the equasion...
